Anton Sonnenberg's Library

Gepubliceerd op

3 juli 2008

Feast of Fungi is the well-chosen title of the exposition that can be seen in the Forum Library until the end of the year. Curator Liesbeth Missel put together the fungi exhibition with material from the Special Collections on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Mycological Society. A very attentive visitor was Anton Sonnenberg, research group leader of Mushrooms at Wageningen UR Plant Breeding, a section of the Plant Sciences Group. It is one of the few times that Anton has been in the library. It's not that he doesn’t want to; he just simply doesn't have the time, he says. Anton is, however, a frequent user of the digital library, about which he enthusiastically says: "You can find material easily, and I quickly receive my requested articles through email." He also makes full use of Scopus and Web of Science, and he calls Wageningen Yield extremely handy to get publications together quickly .

The 56-year-old researcher has been working in Radix, building 107, for a number of years after the Mushroom Group moved from Horst-America to Wageningen. The fascinating thing about mushrooms, he mentions, is that a seemingly simple organism can actually form a complex organ. Sonnenberg explains, "Several tissue types with different functions can be distinguished in mushrooms. Because of its quick life cycle and small genome (30-60 Mb), the mushroom is an excellent study object to research differentiation. The composition of the mushrooms is also extremely special. It is neither plant nor animal and has its own place. The unique combination of vitamins and minerals make mushrooms particularly special. Moreover, because they contain little fat and energy, mushrooms should earn a place in nutritional advice. Unfortunately, that's not the case."

The mushroom authority praises the exposition: "Very interesting. Astonishing that Wageningen UR has this collection and that most of the books are still in good shape. It gives a nice picture of how people earlier viewed mushrooms and what people associated with them."